Growing sweet potatoes

[Capsid]

On Gardener's Question Time, Bob Flowerdew suggested buying a sweet potato from the supermarket and planting it in a bucket of multi purpose compost in January undercover. Then water and, I presume, feed through the spring and summer and in August/September you get a lovely bucket full of delicious sweet potatoes. He advises this method over growing them outside from slips started off in June.

Has anyone else used this method? I thought I might have a go and wondered if it is as easy as it sounds.

[greasyfire]

i try grow mine from a tuber, and yeah it grew to about t10 cm but just stopped i put it in a unheated greenhouse but no affect then i put it inside and now the leaves are shrivling. I think the best method to use is potato slips. they have a higher succes rate and are cheaper.
This woman tried it by slips YouTube - Sweet potatoes Claire's allotment part 78

[FoxHillGardener]

Bob Flowerdew said to buy the sweet potato from a supermarket but then leave it to sprout to grow your own slips (the shoots). then detach the shoots and plant them into big planters. It's on here BBC iPlayer - Gardeners' Question Time: 04/12/2009

[Capsid]

Bob Flowerdew said to buy the sweet potato from a supermarket but then leave it to sprout to grow your own slips (the shoots). then detach the shoots and plant them into big planters. It's on here BBC iPlayer - Gardeners' Question Time: 04/12/2009

Great thanks, I wasn't paying full attention when I heard it.

[FoxHillGardener]

do let us know if it works. In my head I'm going to try it next spring, but I'll have probably forgotten by then!

[esrikandan]

I mentioned something similar in another Sweet Potato thread - I bought one from the supermarket and left it in a jar of water. Let it sprout and when the shoots were big enough I cut them off the potato and potted up into 3" pots to get some roots down. Worked like a dream apart from doing it too late...

[realfood]

I tried growing my own slips on a sunny windowsill, from a sweet potato and growing on in a greenhouse. It grew and flowered quite well, but only tiny potatoes. I do not think that I would bother again in Glasgow.
A certain gardening magazine came to the same conclusion that it was not worth the effort, unless you live in the warmest part of the country

[esrikandan]

Well, it gets fairly warm down here, but I think the key is also being early. I only planted mine out in June so they probably didn't have long enough.

[greasyfire]

Im am doing that exsperiment now in my bathrrom. I have now cut offf the shoots from a tuber i have grown from early summer which seems to have stopped growing and now put the shoots in water.

[COMPOST CORNER]

I'm going to try it in the new year.
I beleive you need to start the tuber in damp compost, with heat, so I'm putting mine in the airing cupoboard to generate slips, then going on from that point I have no idea.

[esrikandan]

I'm going to go for it in Jan as well, so I'll have something worthwhile to plant out in April. But I'm sticking with my now tried and tested jar of water.

[Jillyreeves]

This might help :-)

My allotment in Liverpool

[Capsid]

That's very helpful. I'm going to try the mug method then. One thing I didn't understand was cutting the slips off. Do you just pull the shoots of the tuber or do you cut a bit of tuber with it?

[Alison]

I think the best method to use is potato slips. they have a higher succes rate and are cheaper.

The slips are very expensive to buy and don't seem to be sent out until about June which is rather late in this country to get anything much growing. I bought some from T&M about 5 years ago and had pretty good plants but only radish sized potatoes but took cuttings from the plants which I kept going over winter to get an early start. Did much better the second year but didn't really have the space in the greenhouse (found outside not warm enough in the north west). Am thinking of trying again next year if I get the polytunnel up and running.